


From Me To You

by IBoatedHere



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Getting Together, Knitting, M/M, Secret Santa, pre-zimbits - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9253655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBoatedHere/pseuds/IBoatedHere
Summary: Jack finds the book by accident.Knitting For The Absolute Beginner.





	

Jack finds the book by accident.

_Knitting For The Absolute Beginner._

Someone had stuck it on the shelf in the sports section and Jack juggles the four books he’s already carrying along with his shopping bags to crack it open.

There are a lot of pictures and the steps look simple enough.

It’s fate, he decides. He’s never been much of a believer in it. Or he hasn’t been since his life threw him one curve ball after another. You make your path your own way and you have to work hard for it.

But finding this book is his destiny.

Ever since he pulled Bitty’s name for SMH Secret Santa he’s been in a low key state of panic trying to figure out the perfect present for him.

Bitty came back from class a few days later upset because he had lost one of the mittens his Moomaw had knitted for him when she found out he was headed up North for college.

_“Can’t you just buy a new pair?” Holster had asked._

_“It wouldn’t be the same,” Bitty told him._

_“You could ask her to knit a new pair.”_

_“She’s ninety three years old, Ransom. I can’t just ask her to do that for me.”_

Bitty would appreciate anything anyone got him but Jack doesn’t want him to just tolerate it. He wants it to mean something.

He can hear Lardo and Shitty a few aisles over in the art history section.

Shitty’s going on and on about big chain stores like this making small businesses obsolete. Lardo tells him to _“shut up and go get a fucking soft pretzel or something.”_

Jack smiles fondly and tucks the book under his arm between his other purchases and heads towards the register.

There’s a craft store fifteen minutes from campus and Jack stands in front of the wall of yarn with the book in one hand and size seven bamboo needles in the other and has no idea what to do.

He had no idea there would be this many options.

Bitty’s old mittens were black, he’s guessing so they wouldn’t show dirt which is a practical and grandmotherly thing to do but Jack feels like Bitty deserves something bright.

He hovers over the various shades of reds and blues and golds. The book suggested lighter colors for beginners and not to do more than one at first but he thinks multiple colors would look better and he’s not afraid of a challenge. He’s already learning a new skill, he might as well take it to the next level. But he’s not sure what colors would look good together and he doesn’t want to screw it up.

He steps back and knows he needs help. He can admit that and he’s able to ask for it. Most of the time.

He leaves without the yarn but buys the needles and impulse bag of Skittles by the register.

*****

Ladro is curled up on her bed with her computer sitting across her lap.

Jack stands at the door awkwardly with the plastic bag in his hand until Lardo looks up. She doesn’t jump but he knows she’s surprised to see him.

“How’d you get in here?”

“One of your roommates let me in. Lara, I think.”

“Kay. You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

It must sound unconvincing because Lardo shoves her laptop away and sits up straight.

“I need your help with something.”

Her eyes widen and one hand creeps towards her phone that’s lying on the comforter. “Jack, seriously, you’re okay, right?”

“It’s about my Secret Santa.”

She relaxes back onto the bed with a roll of her eyes. “Fuck dude. You had me thinking I needed to call Shitty to help hide a body or something.”

“No. Not that. I want to knit mittens for Bitty for his gift-.”

“Whoa, Secret Santa, _secret,_ and what the fuck, you want to knit? I didn’t know you knew how to knit? Bro, you could’ve been making hats for me this whole time.”

“I don’t know how but I’m going to learn. I bought a book and Bitty talks about Pinterest all the time so maybe that could help me. I went to the store and bought the needles.” He holds up the bag. “But I didn’t know what color yarn to get and I don’t want to screw it up so I thought maybe you could help me with that?”

“You want me to help you pick out yarn so you can knit Bitty mittens for his Christmas present?”

“Yeah. I bought you Skittles.”

“You don’t need to like, buy my love, Jack.” But she holds her hand out anyways and Jack drops the bag into it. “So,” she says as she tears it open. “You and Bitty.”

“What about me and Bitty?”

“You’re learning to knit for him. You’re going through all this trouble. I got Chowder for my Secret Santa and I just ordered a bunch of shit off Amazon. Good shit. But it’ll be delivered right to my door. Minimal effort.”

“So?”

She pours out a handful of Skittles and picks around the purple ones. “You could just buy him some mittens.”

“It wouldn’t be the same.”

Lardo raises an eyebrow.

“It’s not like that.”

“Didn’t say anything.”

“I just want to do something nice for him.”

She raises both of her eyebrows now.

“Knock it off.”

She pops the handful of Skittles into her mouth and swings her legs off the side of the bed. Her feet don’t touch the ground. “Alright, alright. What colors were you thinking of?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, his coat is brown, right?”

It’s brown and not nearly warm enough for the winter because Bitty has to pile on layer after layer beneath it. Sometimes the zipper gets stuck and there’s a hole in the pocket that Bitty really needs to sew up because he complains about it constantly. He says he’s afraid his phone is going to slip out. Jack chips him relentlessly about how he wouldn’t survive if he was separated from Twitter for too long. Bitty really needs a new coat. Maybe he can buy one for him. He doesn’t run that past Lardo. He doesn’t say anything except, “yeah, it’s brown.”

“So it’s a neutral which means we have a lot of options. What colors look the best on him?”

“Every color looks good on him.”

Lardo smirks and Jack knows he’s been caught. He’s not happy about it but the relief he feels is unexpected.

“It’s not like that it’s just…..it’s not-not like that either.” He sits down on the bed and rubs his palms over his knees. “I don’t know. It’s hard. It’s difficult for me to figure this out. I don’t want to do the wrong thing or make a mistake….I don’t know what to do.”

Lardo bumps her fist into his shoulder and he looks up at her.

“You’re gonna get up, drive me to the craft store, buy some yarn and knit the best pair of mittens the world has ever seen because you are Jack Zimmermann and you get shit done.”

“I was thinking about making a scarf too.”

She pauses as she pulls on her boots. “Dude.”

******

“You can’t go wrong with blue,” Lardo says as they stand in front of the yarn.

“But which blue?”

Lardo looks up at him. _You’re overthinking this_ , is written all over her face but she silently steps forward and grabs dark blue yarn off the shelf.

“The book said I should stick to lighter colors when I first start.”

“The book also says you should stick to one color but you’re not doing that either.” She crouches down and grabs a pack of yellow and hands it over.

“This looks like butter,” he says and Lardo’s face goes softer than he’s ever seen it go before. “You can’t tell anyone I’m doing this.”

“Course not. Secret Santa.”

“Not even Shitty. He’d get all excited and want to talk about my feelings.”

“Dude, maybe you should talk about your feelings.”

“I’m talking to you.”

“Barely. Look, I know I’m being a little hypocritical saying that you should use your words and shit but _really_.”

“I’ll talk after Christmas. I just want to see how he reacts.”

“Like he’s going to be anything other than overjoyed.”

“He could hate them.” He could hate me.

“I’ll make you a deal, if Bits is like, offended by these and thinks they’re ugly and pulls a full on Scarlet O’Hara dramatic routine over them I’ll take the fall. I’ll tell them they were from me and you can take my gift to Chowder.”

“You’d do that?”

“Sure. But I won’t have to. Now let’s swing by the paint section on our way out and you can buy me another bag of of Skittles. Please.”

*******

Jack learns quickly that the book alone is not going to cut it.

He sits on his bed with the yarn in his lap and reads it over and over again.

The instructions might as well be in a different language. He can’t even get the first loop on the needle.

He sits at his desk and tries it, like maybe working on a flat surface would help, but it doesn’t.

 _Help ?????_ he texts Lardo and she immediately responds with several links to YouTube videos and detailed step by step instructions with the pictures that move on a loop and a Pinterest account already set up in his name. There are boards about knitting and color schemes and patterns for hats and gloves and socks. There’s also one entitled _Cute First Date Ideas_ that Jack will look at later.

 _Thanks,_ he texts back, _for everything._

_Anytime._

*****

He sends her a picture of his first completed row of stitches.

_Looks great. I thought you were going to make the cuffs yellow?_

Jack looks down at the row of blue.

“Fuck.”

******

Jack does most of his knitting in his room behind his locked door which he knows is slightly suspicious.

Shitty finds it wicked suspicious and jiggles the door knob then slams his whole body against it when it doesn’t open.

“Brah, what the fuck. You hooking up in there because I’ll leave you alone?”

It’s 6:30 at night on a Wednesday. Not that it means anything in the Haus.

“I’m by myself, Shits.”

There’s a long stretch of silence and then “Are you hooking up by yourself because I’ll still leave you alone.”

Jack swears under his breath and shoves his knitting supplies, very carefully, beneath his pillow and opens the door.

“What do you want?”

Shitty looks him over and looks genuinely disappointed when he sees that Jack isn’t nearly rumpled enough to have been doing anything interesting.

“Bitty made pie.”

“Bittle always makes pie.”

“But this one is like super special. He’s cleaning out the freezer to make room for extra Christmas cookies because he’s going to make enough to feed a fucking army and he had to use up all the berries he had in there. Bro. I didn’t know frozen could taste so good.”

“Frozen berries are just as good as fresh ones,” Jack tells him. “I read an article in Men’s Fitness about how frozen blueberries have more antioxidants than-.”

“Oh my god,” Shitty cuts him off. “Just get your ass downstairs before the Frogs eat it all.”

“Bittle will save me a slice.”

“Bitty doesn’t say anyone a slice. First come, first serve. Unless it’s for like, a special occasion or something.”

Jack is positive that’s not true because he’s come back to the Haus plenty of times to find Bitty alone in the kitchen saying “ _here honey, saved you a slice”_ and sliding a plate full of pie across the table at him before Jack has even agreed to eat it.

“Just get your antisocial ass downstairs.”

“I have a lot of work to do.” He’s up to the thumb on the first mitten and he thinks if he really concentrates he’ll have it done by midnight. “I have to study.”

“I feel like I haven’t seen you outside of practice in weeks. It’s the holidays, Jack, you’re supposed to spend them with the people you love.”

Jack doesn’t get a chance to argue because Shitty pulls him down into a headlock and doesn’t let go until he pushes him into the kitchen.

“Jack Zimmermann,” Bitty says, voice full of wonder with his hands on his hips. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”

“We thought you died, bro,” Holster says, mouth full of pie. Crumbs fly out onto the table.

“I had to pull him out of his cave kicking and screaming.” Shitty flips a chair around backwards and sits across it. Then he reaches out and tug Jack down into the one next to him.

“I didn’t kick.”

“You did try to bite me, though. Bits, hook our captain up with some pie.”

A second later there’s a huge slice in front of him with extra homemade whipped cream.

Bitty pats his shoulder and turns to the kitchen to start washing up and Jack watches him- a bright light against the dark window.

He takes a huge bite of pie just to stop himself from saying something stupid.

******

“I need your hand.”

Lardo sticks it straight up from where she’s lying on her stomach on the floor of her room.

Jack leans over from her bed and slips it on.

She wiggles her fingers. “Little big.”

“Supposed to be. Bittle’s hands are a little bigger than yours.”

“You spend a lot of time looking at his hands, Zimmermann? Thinking about his hands?” She teases as she sits up.

Yes. Working butter through flour. Cutting fruit. Holding pens while writing shopping lists. Scrolling through his phone. Taking off his gear after practice.

“He has….nice hands,” Jack finishes lamely and makes a swipe for the mitten but Lardo pulls her hand back.

“These are really nice, Jack. He’s going to love them.”

“I hope so. I have to start the other one and work on the scarf. I got bored of doing the mittens so I started it but there’s still a lot to do.”

“Wish I could help but I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing so…” She takes off the mitten and drops it in his lap. “Godspeed.”

He mumbles out a thanks and tries not to drop another stitch.

“Okay. I gotta be honest, Jack. This whole thing-.” She gestures to him on the bed, barefoot, propped up with pillow with knitting needles in his hands and a shit ton of yarn across his lap. “Is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen. The most adorable and I spend a lot of my time looking up baby animals accounts on Instagram. Putting in all this work just to impress your crush. Adorable.”

“It’s not that much work. It’s kind of nice to have something to focus on. Everything else I could be worried about falls away for a little while. It’s like being on the ice except here I’m not worried about that either. Is that how it is for you when you do art?”

“Fuck no. I’m constantly worried about how it’s going to turn out. When are you going to start knitting me things? I want a hat.”

“Soon as I’m done with this. Go find a pattern.”

“So fucking cute,” Lardo says as she starts to thumb through one of the pattern books Jack bought off Amazon. “Hey. You should make the team matching sweaters or something.”

“I thought about making Shitty an ugly Christmas sweater.”

“He. Would. Die. He would never take it off. He’d want to be buried in it.”

“I could make a matching one for myself.”

“You would break him, Jack. You would destroy him.” She stands and punches his arm a lot softer than Jack knows she’s capable of. “So fucking cute. Let’s go get pizza.”

“I have to finish this.”

“After pizza!”

******

Jack finishes the gloves and hides them in the back of his closet.

He’s probably being paranoid but he knows Shitty looks through his stuff to borrow clothes.

When he’s done with the scarf (he stops when he can wrap it loosely around his neck three times) he buys a gift bag with reindeer on it at Murder Stop & Shop as well as some white tissue paper and spends too much time wrapping and re-wrapping them.

He wants it to look perfect and the tissue paper isn’t poking out of the top in the correct way the first five times he does it.

When he’s happy with it he prints out a card ( _To: Bitty, From: Santa_ ) so Bittle won’t be able to recognize his handwriting and tapes it to the bag.

After everyone is asleep it drops it off beneath the scrawny Christmas tree in the living room and lets himself hope for the best possible outcome for once.

*****

“Gather ‘round, children, gather ‘round.”

Shitty is wearing boxers that look like Santa’s pants and a headband with mistletoe hanging off of it and nothing else.

He kisses everyone on the cheek as they file into the living room.

Bittle sits on the floor in front of Holster and Jack sits on the far end of the couch so he has a perfect view of Bitty tapping his fingers excitedly against the gift bag when Shitty drops it in his lap.

“Should we go one at a time or everyone just dig in and go for it. Mass chaos style?” Shitty asks and Lardo’s answer is immediate.

“One at a time. Bitty, you go first.”

“Why me?”

“Why not you? Hop to it.”

Lardo’s sitting straight up with a huge smile on her face as Bitty starts to pull out the tissue paper. Jack slumps back against the arm of the couch and feels like he could watch the whole thing through his fingers.

He pulls out the mittens first and stares down at them.

“There’s something else in there,” Lardo says and Bitty reaches in and grabs the scarf.

“Did you call my Moomaw and tell her to make another pair of mittens for me,” he asks Lardo. “Because that’s cheating.”

“It wasn’t her.” Jack speaks up and everyone’s head turns to look at him. “It’s not from her it’s from me.”

“You called my Moomaw then? How did that conversation go?”

“I didn’t call her. I made those.”

“You knit?” Shitty asks.

“I do now. I had to learn.”

“Fuck,” Ransom whines from where he’s perched on the coffee table. “How the hell are the rest of us supposed to compete with that. My gift is going to be shit compared to that. Sorry in advance, Nurse.”

“It was a little tricky in the beginning but I got used to it.”

Bitty doesn’t say anything. He’s not smiling either. Jack looks to Lardo for help.

“I helped him pick out the colors because he was totally clueless. We thought you’d like those.”

“They’re great,” Bitty finally says. “Thank you, Jack. It’s just what I needed. I love them.” He takes a deep breath and puts everything back in the bag. “Who’s next?”

******

Jack doesn’t pay much attention to what everyone else gets.

He gets a set of autobiographies of WW2 soldiers from Chowder which he really does love and his thankful for. The smile he gives Chowder is genuine and Chowder looks satisfied and a little smug that he picked such a good present but Jack can’t stop looking at the reindeer bag next to Bitty being completely ignored.

“I don’t know what that was, Jack,” Lardo whispers to them after everyone gets done opening their gifts. People have filed into the kitchen behind Bitty. Bitty has left his on the floor next to the couch. “I tried to put it back on me like I said I would but-.”

“It’s okay. You should get credit for your gift.”

“You gave Bitty a great gift, Jack. Do you want me to talk to him? I can try to figure out why his reaction was so….underwhelming.”

“Leave it. It’s fine. I don’t want to make it any worse.”

“Jack.”

He puts his arm around her shoulders and leads her towards the kitchen. “Bittle is making brunch so we better get in there.”

“Jack, you worked so hard.”

“Sometimes that doesn’t matter.”

Lardo makes a sad noise and Jack hugs her tighter to his side.

******

Jack is double checking his bags to make sure everything is packed when Bitty knocks at his door.

He’s zipping up his jacket, frowning when the zipper gets momentarily stuck, and then smiling when he makes eye contact with Jack. He’s not wearing his scarf or the mittens.

“I have to make a butter run. I’m making some last minute cookies for people to take with them and I want to restock the freezer so it’s all set when we get back. Do you want to come with me?”

Jack really doesn’t but it’s dark and late and cold and he doesn’t love the idea of Bitty being out there alone in that.

“Sure, Bittle.”

Bitty lights up and bounces on his toes. “Great. Oh lord, I forgot.”

He darts out of the doorway as Jack gets his shoes on and returns a moment later with his mittens on and the scarf around his neck.

Jack stares, so confused, until Bitty says his name.

“Jack. Let’s go. I have a ton of stuff to bake and my flight home is really early.”

Jack follows him down the stairs and out of the Haus. Bitty talks about the cookies he’s going to make and tugs on the scarf the whole time.

“You don’t have to wear them if you don’t want to, Bittle.”

Bitty stops in the middle of his sentence about his molasses cookies and stares up at him.

“The scarf,” Jack says. “And the mittens. If you don’t like them you don’t have to pretend.”

“What are you talking about?” His hand curl around the scarf and he rests his chin on the mittens. “I love them.”

“You’re not going to hurt my feelings by telling me the truth. It’s worse if you lie about it. I saw how you reacted when you opened them.”

“I told you I loved them. I wasn’t lying. I had to contain myself. Lord, Jack, if I reacted how I wanted to react….”

“How’d you want to react?”

“Jack.” Bitty puts one hand on Jack’s arm. “You learned how to knit for me. You made me something that I really needed. I didn’t even ask for it you just knew. You paid attention and you remembered. You asked Lardo to help you pick out the colors so you knew they’d look good.”

“The yellow reminded me of butter. I figured you’d like that,” Jack says and Bitty laughs and shuts his eyes. When he opens them him they’re bright with hope.

“If I had reacted how I wanted to I would have kissed you in front of everyone. I’d probably still be kissing you.”

It’s Jack’s turn to shut his eyes. He can’t believe what he’s hearing, that what he wants matches up so perfectly to what Bitty wants.

When he feels the pressure of hands on his chest he opens his eyes and Bittle is right there, stepping even closer and raising up on his toes.

“That would have been a pretty big fine, Bittle.”

“I know. More than I could afford. But we’re all alone right now so….”

Jack pulls Bitty in the rest of the way by his scarf and kisses him.

It’s freezing out but Jack has never warmer with Bitty pressed up against him beneath the glow of the streetlight.

The kiss slows and Bitty is only able to put a sliver of distance between them because Jack has his hands balled up in the scarf.

“I really do need to go to Stop & Shop,” Bitty says and Jack laughs against his lips and kisses him again. Quick but meaningful, a promise to talk later, to talk during break. Jack fixes the scarf, wrapping it around him so his neck is properly covered and falls back into step with Bitty.

They only make it a few steps before he feels the back of Bitty’s hand brush against his own. It happens a few more times before Bitty huffs takes his hand.

Jack brings Bitty’s hand up to his face. The yarn is soft when he presses his lips to Bittle’s knuckles.

 _I’m going to love you,_ he thinks.

Bitty looks up at him through his lashes and it’s not a trick of the light or wishful thinking on Jack’s part when he sees _me too_ as an answer written all over Bittle’s face.


End file.
